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Dec 31 - The following are the top stories in the Wall
Street Journal on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories
and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* In a step that potentially could ease the way for a merger
of American Airlines parent AMR Corp and US Airways
Group Inc, the board of American's pilots union approved
an interim labor framework should the two carriers proceed with
a combination to take AMR out of bankruptcy-court protection. ()

* U.S. investment firm Lone Star Funds and other
shareholders of Tokyo Star Bank are in talks on selling the
midsize Japanese lender to Taiwan's Chinatrust Commercial Bank
Co Ltd, a person close to the talks said. ()

* If Congress and the White House fail to strike a deal to
avert the so-called fiscal cliff, Republicans are under few
illusions as to who will get much of the blame - even if past
polls suggest there will be plenty to go around. ()

* Europe's poor economic outlook could drag on the euro in
2013, but it is the actions of the European Central Bank and its
peers that will largely determine how it trades, analysts and
investors say. ()

* The government of Socialist President François Hollande on
Sunday said it would consider other ways of imposing a top
income-tax rate of 75 percent on high-wealth individuals after
the country's top constitutional authority scrapped the plan. ()

* A stroke-preventing pill from Pfizer Inc and
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co won approval from U.S. health
regulators, setting the stage for a fierce fight among drug
makers to replace the widely used blood thinner warfarin. ()

* A group of pension funds that oversee more than $3
trillion in assets asked U.S. securities regulators to revamp
rules on how corporate executives can trade their company stock.
()

* Stricter international safety rules will kick in next year
to tackle hazards from shipments of lithium batteries aboard
planes, but pilot groups and power-cell makers are battling over
whether there should be even tougher measures. ()

* Mandatory federal spending cuts designed to be
prohibitively drastic will become a reality on Wednesday if
negotiators remain unable to reach an agreement to avert the
reductions. ()